Author's Note: Hope you all enjoy the chapter.
Alec watched the monitors in terror, the CCTV feeds blank for the moment. He'd been having such a lovely day until he'd realised his defences were down, and were staying down. Since then relaxation had been replaced by fear.
He'd just kicked his desk chair over to the computer responsible for sonic defences when he'd realised he couldn't. With the ultrasonic and infrasonic waves reaching for miles around it would be torture for Chrome.
For a few, brief seconds he considered doing it anyway, after all it was his survival that would be at stake. But then, unwillingly, he imagined what it would be like if he were in Chrome's place, blind and the only sound horrifically painful to the ear.. He wasn't a monster, there was no way he could do that to another intelligent creature – and the past two years had more than proven the intelligence of the praetorian cast in the hive.
Which had led to his current predicament, watching the CCTV and hoping against hope not to see the familiar shape of a xenomorph drone. But after a few hours it soon became apparent his fear was for nought. The hive was quiet tonight, licking it's wounds probably.
An upset cry brought his attention back to inside the building, Chrome was complaining about something. Again.
With only a minor grumble he left the computer room to see what the praetorian wanted.
As he entered Chrome's room he was relieved to see the praetorian still bound to the table, as ironic as it would have been he would rather not get a tail through his chest for his troubles.
The praetorian's cry was high pitched, it's meaning unfamiliar to him. Carefully he redressed Chrome's wounds, the xenomorph's healing, although astonishingly efficient, was being taxed to it's limits at the moment, but hopefully, with a little help, the praetorian would survive.
As soon as he touched the dressing Chrome had shut up, waiting patiently. A drastic change from the last time he'd changed the bandages. Still, as soon as it became clear he was finished, the praetorian screeched again.
In response Alec's stomach growled loudly. The penny dropped.
"Just give me a minute Chrome. I'll get us both something to eat." He soothed calmingly. It had been the best part of a day since he'd eaten and he had no idea how long since Chrome had eaten.
Rifling through the cupboards he got out a can of meatballs for himself and struggled to find something the xenomorph would eat.
Eventually, after another hungry cry caught his attention, he settled on one of the cans of SCP, the rations had been left preserved in their tin since the colonisation. Still, considering xenomorphs were carnivores the single celled protein would at least prove digestible if not quite galactic-class cuisine.
Returning with the food he noticed that Chrome fell silent as soon as he entered the room, which Alec assumed was because of the smell of the food. Still feeding the praetorian had proven... problematic at best. As the xenomorph was firmly bound to the table there was no way it could feed itself. Either he could knock it out, leaving the food, and hopefully tranq it back into unconsciousness afterwards or he would have to feed the praetorian by hand, something which didn't hold much appeal either.
He was almost beginning to regret saving the praetorian, whilst it provided fascinating company, every little thing seemed to add new complications to his life.
Eventually he decided he'd have to feed it himself. He could only hope he'd come out of this with all his fingers.
Piusnex stifled in her restraints, as much as she enjoyed a rest every now and again, over a day's worth of doing nothing was proving more than she could handle in terms of boredom.
It had been several hours since she'd last heard the human and she was finding it unbearably lonely. While the human never understood a word she said, he had at least been something to complain at. And speaking of complaints, she was starving. It had been two days since her last meal and while xenomorphs didn't need to eat as often as humans, the hunger was really starting to get to her.
"I'm hungry!" She shouted, hoping to catch the human's attention, sure enough it slowly edged through the door and although she couldn't see him, she could almost feel his eyes watching her, his fear so thick in the air she could smell it. Just like every time he entered the room. The smell faded rapidly though. It was in her opinion most peculiar, in her experience a human always stunk of fear around her species so why the fear dissipated she simply couldn't understand.
"Food. Now!" She shouted again. The human walked over and touched the covering it had placed over her body. This was the bit that confused her, the cloth thing had stopped hurting and was actually quite soft now. She quivered almost undetectably as the human's cold fingers brushed the skin.
She stayed quiet as the human applied a new wrapping. As the human stepped away, and with no chance of it accidentally putting a finger in her chest wound – something likely to cause severe pain for the pair of them - she voiced her hunger again, the language barrier getting increasingly frustrating.
Talking to itself the human left the room, leaving Piusnex, once more, to her thoughts. Her increasingly confused thoughts.
After about five minutes her hunger got the better of her again and she let out another plea for sustenance, it wasn't long before the human returned. And it had brought food.
Yeythwei forced down the dehydrated gunk which made up the majority of his rations. It was one probably the main reason that most hunters chose to feast upon the local wildlife upon making planetfall rather than subsist on their own stores.
Then, that action alone enough to tire his wounded body, he settled back down to sleep. It was going to be a long month.
The Queen ripped into one of the local animals which the drones had brought back to the hive. In the day since the tragic loss, five creatures had been selected as hosts, the smartest, fastest and strongest of their kind which would thereby produce the best xenomorphs. Three of the elder drones had gone through the metamorphic process through which most praetorians were created, now given new strength and intelligence. Eventually, as their personalities formed, they would take names. The hive was reasonably small compared to what it could have been but that had been her choice.
If a hostile species were still on the planet then most Queens; herself included, would have chosen to raise the hive's number to gigantic proportions to fend off the threat, risking the balance of the ecosystems in the process. But with the humans dead and with just a few hives spread across the planet such numbers were unnessecary.
The physical wounds upon the hive were almost healed, the psychological ones would take a little longer.
Author's Note: Managed to finish just in time for the Thursday update. Next update will be within the next three weeks so get those author alerts in now, or a review. Please?